Children belong in playgrounds and schools, not in prisons and police cells. But in November 2016, the Victorian Andrews Government decided to use the Grevillea Unit in the Barwon maximum security adult prison as a youth jail and started sending children as young as 15 there. The Human Rights Law Centre used legal action to challenge this under Victoria’s Human Rights Charter.

PROJECT | Dignity for People in Prison

Working with the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and pro bono barristers led by Brian Walters QC, we took legal action to stop the government locking up children in an adult prison. In late November, the government settled the case, agreeing to remove all Aboriginal children from Barwon and to not send any more Aboriginal children there unless the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People approved the transfer as being in the child’s best interest. 

We took subsequent legal action with Fitzroy Legal Service to ensure that no children could be kept at Barwon, but despite the courts ruling in our favour the Andrews Government persisted in sending children to an adult prison, prompting us to take further legal action. 

In May 2017, the Victorian Supreme Court ruled that the Andrews Government acted unlawfully in transferring children to Barwon jail and prohibited the Victorian Government from continuing to detain children there. The Court documented extensive evidence of the harmful conditions at Barwon including the extended solitary confinement, ongoing handcuffing and the denial of proper education. 

This was an important win for children’s rights and Victoria’s Human Rights Charter, and the Human Rights Law Centre continues to advocate for laws that stop the incarceration of children. Funnelling children into prisons does not make communities safer, it undermines them. 

We need to Raise the Age, address systemic racism and discriminatory policing, and properly invest in preventative and early intervention services, including Aboriginal-led support programs.